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13 March 2012

Garret Tour Tuesday: Cherie Reich

Today fellow Virginia-based writer Cherie Reich is sharing her many writing spaces. Cherie is also a freelance editor and a library assistant. As a librarian in a small academic library, Cherie is lucky enough to be able to write in her downtime, so with home and work she has multiple writing spaces. And she kindly traipsed all over with a camera to show us the variety!

There are two main areas she might be while at work. First, she has an office... [Ed--all bolding is quotes is mine.]

"I love glancing up at my magnets for inspiration. My office is quiet, except when the phone’s ringing. I feel comfortable writing at my desk because sometimes I make weird facial expressions (like the characters I’m writing about). Plus, I can close my eyes and imagine where my characters are at."

Office desk and magnets! Omigosh, and a bitty plant!

The second area is the circulation desk, where she can see the library's patrons and the books, which she says "might be more inspiring if most of our books weren’t non-fiction."

"I feel more self-conscious when I write at the circulation desk. At work, I often have a bottle of water or something like that to drink too. I also enjoy writing in the mornings or evenings when the library is quiet. We get busier in the afternoons."

Circulation Desk

At her home, Cherie writes in one of two places: her room or the den. She has a nice desk in her room.

"It’s in a corner, just like what Stephen King said was a great place to write in his On Writing. And although not pictures, I have over 1000 books along my wall to gaze at. It’s quiet in my room, but the chair’s a tad too uncomfortable to write for long. My favorite time to write in my room is morning when the house is the most quiet."

Home Desk

In the den...

"Yes, I hate to admit it, but I write sometimes while watching TV. I use my chair to write on weekend nights. At home, I love to have some hot tea to drink. My laptop also has to fight for lap space with my cat Cinderella (pictured)."

Oh, cats and laptops...

There was some selective bolding in Cherie's quotes, so that you wouldn't miss a bit of a theme. [Go back and look, then, if you didn't notice. I'll be here.]

[Still waiting.]

[You looked, right?]

Yup. Cherie is definitely a writer who expresses a clear preference for quiet, or silence, despite confessing to occasionally vegging out in the cushy chair and writing with the TV on. She says, "I prefer to write with no one around, but I’ve adjusted well to writing with people around me." Cherie is not the first writer in this series to not express a preference for music or at least background noise, although both expressed that they can write in other situations. An interesting preference, although it does not seem to have impeded Cherie's progress... Cherie's creds: Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, and her e-books include Once Upon a December Nightmare, The Best of Raven and the Writing Desk, and Defying Gravity*. She is a member of the Virginia Writers Club and Valley Writers and placed third in Roanoke Valley’s BIG READ writing contest.

I read Defying Gravity when Cherie recently announced a 24-hour release on her blog for her 30th birthday. (Happy late birthday!) You know me...free book, I'm checking it out. Well. Let me tell you guys. This does not read like a story I've read three billion times before. She's created at least two alien races with cultural history, war backgrounds, drama, romance, and I was pretty damn disappointed when it ended. Space Opera, you guys -- people are writing seriously good stuff in this genre.

What is Cherie up to now?

"I’m always working on something. For this moment, I’m editing my first novel The Phoenix Prophetess (YA Epic Fantasy), writing a flash fiction collection that will be featured on my blog during the A to Z Challenge (A to Z Flashes of Foxwick, fantasy), and working on the first draft of Fighting Gravity (space opera, book two in the Gravity series). Of course, I always have blog posts to write as well. And I’ll use all my writing spaces to get my work done."

Thanks so much for sharing, Cherie!

Now You!

Do you prefer the sound of music or silence? Which better helps you focus? Or is it just a matter of people being around or not being around? [Ed--This is an open question for everybody, not just writers.]